ongoing peace process with the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.On Monday, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Gulten Kisanak, said the reform package “didn’t address any of their expectations.”
The reaction comes shortly after Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan proposed long-awaited reforms to enhance the rights of Turkey’s Kurdish community.
The reform package is seen as key to the continuation of the peace process aimed at ending the decades-long insurgency of the PKK.
Under the reforms, Kurdish-language education will be permitted in private schools, and candidates in elections will be allowed to campaign in Kurdish.
The reforms will also aim to ease rules preventing pro-Kurdish and other smaller parties from entering parliament. Women have been also granted permission to wear headscarves in state institutions.
In addition, towns can revert to their previous Kurdish names, and a quirky ban on the use of three letters of the Kurdish alphabet that do not exist in Turkish will be lifted.
However, Kisanak called the reforms an “elections package” that has no “capability of solving the problems,” nor tackling the stalemate in the settlement process.
In March the PKK’s jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, declared a historic ceasefire after months of negotiations with the Turkish government.
In return, the PKK demanded amendments to the penal code and electoral laws as well as the right to education in the Kurdish language and a degree of regional autonomy.
But earlier this month the PKK announced they were planning to suspend the ceasefire accusing Ankara of failing to deliver the promised reforms.
source: PressTV: